Sue Lawty makes understated and abstract works: drawings & assemblages using thousands of minute stones creating a kind of pixilated ‘cloth’. Lightness of touch and pared-down palette give importance to each nuance or mark. The work is informed by the land, by rock, by ancient textiles and also by travels including Africa, New Zealand, Bhutan, Nepal. It has been described as meditative… a deeply contemplative experience….

Lawty held an artist residency at the Victoria and Albert Museum and was awarded a prestigious Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.

Why Stones?

'Whether a line of quartz splitting a rock face or a huge folded mountain range, the structure of rock talks of the structure of our planet. It is like a map of time - the earth drawing itself on a massive scale.And whether stones are satisfyingly smooth… or like long thin fingers… or beautifully, almost purely round; whether they are knobbly, shiny, dull, patterned or plain, black or white – they reflect the language of their making i.e. how they look in this de-constructed state is as a direct result of their construction millions of years ago. This is exciting.To pick up a rock, is to touch base. Touching stones gives us a primal connection with the earth. When we handle a stone, we hold in our hands a small drawing, a tiny piece of the map; we are holding time.That’s why.' Sue LawtyPhoto Credit: John Coombes, Jess James